Friday, September 6, 2013

Pricky, but Pretty!

I saw some cute framed pinecones around the Pinterest world and decided I needed to give it a shot!
This is so simple, yet so festive.



When we were at my mom's last week, we found a handful of pinecones. Eli helped me gather them up. I can't wait to use them around the house and with crafts for the kiddos!

This was a fast little project that only took me a few minutes during nap time.

Sunday, September 1, 2013

Fishing for Flashcards


Fishing For Flashcards! 

So last week I posted here about how we were trying a more hands on approach for reading.
He was getting really frustrated and not focusing. So we decided to slow it down and work in a lot of flashcard review and hands on reading games. 

I put together this little fishing game with his flashcards. 
It was super easy!
I put metal paper clips right on the flashcards. Grabbed a stick from the backyard and tied some yarn to one end. I had a small package of magnets and glued two together at the end of the yarn.  
Wha La!
A fishing pole and flashcard fish!  



Friday, August 30, 2013

Seek and Find- God's Creation

We have been learning about creation in history. So as a bonus activity I decided it would be fun to do a Seek and Find of Things God Made!



I made the checklist in word and decided to use outlines of clip art to save on color ink. Then I just colored them in to add the color. I am very frugal when it comes to using ink in a crazy sort of way!  
I put the printout inside a clear page protector so we could reuse it later.
Oh, and the clipboard is from the Dollar Store....I LOVE that place!

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Tips to Survive Morning Sickness

 Photo from mycutegraphics.com
  
I know there are some lucky women out there who don't have morning sickness.....if that is you PLEASE do not tell me!! You probably will look at my little list and not think anything of it. 
If you are the type to wake up and meet the toilet nearly every morning and throughout the WHOLE day long (yep.....morning sickness does happen all day!), then this will hopefully help you survive too. Or at least help give you ideas to survive.

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Bead Bracelet

Here is a fun craft to do with your little ones!
This bead bracelet project is great for encouraging fine motor skills. All you will need is some pipe cleaners and some colorful beads.





I found our package of pipe cleaners at the Dollar Store and already had the beads. So this craft cost all of $1.00! Oh ya!

Monday, August 26, 2013

Chocolate Cupcakes

We finally found a cake recipe that is dairy free and doesn't taste dairy free!
These cupcakes were a hit with the whole family!
I even got a "Thank you mommy! That's so yummy!" from Brooklyn!
It always makes me happy when I can make something sweet for my dairy free kiddo.
I feel bad that she misses out on so many desserts and treats.

I found this recipe on Pinterest from snapguide.com. For some reason I am unable to pull up the page right now. So I will update when I can figure that out.



Saturday, August 24, 2013

Reading Round Up!

We are finishing up unit 2 in LHFHG this week. As I mentioned we decided try something different with Eli and his reading. 
Last week when it came time to sit down and do his reading lesson it was like a war had just broke out.  My school loving 4 year old would turn into a tantrum throwing toddler and nothing...NOTHING would get him to focus. 
I was dreading reading time and I knew he was as well. Obviously, we needed to change something.
I kept questioning whether we had the right reading program for his learning style or if it was just laziness on his part. 

As I have quickly learned my little boy learns best with hands on material. I have to sandwich in the sit down subjects in between active hands on activities. 
Mostly this just means more creative thinking on my part! ;)

So to start off we decided to take a little break from his reading book. Although we have been working on reading on and off through the summer we had yet to dive into it everyday. 
So after a week of book lessons and lots of tears and frustration this momma decided to take another route.

First, I want him to still do the program we started. So we are just stepping away from it for a time to get a good foundation down.
This week we have hit the flash cards for review on the words he has already been introduced to. I have tried to get him reading them more by making it into a fun game.
Trust me, "Eli we have a reading game to do next!" goes over much better then "grab your reading book.". 
Next week we will do a couple lessons in his reading book and continue his hands on reading the other days.

I can't tell you how much easier this week has been without the struggle over getting him to read! And really I feel like he has made great progress and built more confidence in himself.

Here are a few pictures from this week's reading progress!


Hop Scotch Reading!


Wednesday, August 21, 2013

First Week of Little Hearts For His Glory


We have started our first official year of school!
Our main curriculum this year is Little Hearts For His Glory from Heart of Dakota.
I could not be more pleased with how well it is going so far! 
 The kids are loving it and I am loving how much they are absorbing. 

The material is biblically based, focusing on verse memory while getting all the subjects in.
I also love how flexible the program is too. We are using our own Phonics program and working through it at our own pace. Eli wont be 5 until November so I don't want to rush him into learning to read.
With that said he really is doing a fabulous job and surprising his mommy that's for sure!
I know it's only a couple weeks in, but I have already heard (several times I may add!) "I love school so much!". 
Yay! Makes my very new homeschooling mommy heart happy to hear those words! 



Here are the munchkins on their first day!


Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Gearing Up for Kindergarten!

Photo from mycutegraphics.com

This year Eli will be starting his Kindergarten workbooks! Last year we did lots of letter and number projects, but didn't follow a particular program. If we were sending Eli to school he wouldn't start Kindergarten till next year due to his birthday being in November. 
As I was looking over curriculum I knew a preschool program would be too easy for him. So we ordered (still waiting on some stuff) the Little Hearts For His Glory Kindergarten program by Heart of Dakota.

I am loving how Eli is getting so excited to start school! I mean he is literally over the moon, jumping up and down excited when a new book arrives in the mail! 
I have to say that is the best thing to see as new homeschool mom just starting up!

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Seek-n-Find Binoculars

Yesterday we made these adorable Seek-n-Find binoculars! My kids loved this project! The best thing was it was as simple as gathering up the supplies and letting the kids dig in. 
 If your little ones are anything like mine they love to do crafts! My kids were so excited to decorate their binoculars! 
So along with them making a fun project, they are working on their fine motor skills and exploring their creative side.
And Eli even wrote a version of his name on his without even being asked! 
Oh, and he does know how to spell his name correctly...I don't know what he was doing here! 


My kids enjoy playing seek-n-find with their very own binoculars. I tell them something to find and then they run around the house looking for the item or letter. 
This is also a great way to emphasize the letter and number of the week.  

Saturday, July 27, 2013

Master Bedroom Redo - DIY Fabric Headboard



This was my project a few weekends ago! It really was a simple as it looks and I am loving the results!!

As I mentioned before I was inspired by Young House Love's new book.  I highly recommend you check out YHL's book! It is filled with creative and fun ideas on how to decorate your house on a budget. A great resource for a frugal DIYer like myself! 

Tuesday, July 2, 2013

A Busy June

Well we made it through June. We did our share of celebrating, appointment and working. There was "firsts" and even our 6th Anniversary! We made a new vehicle purchase and the hubby started a new job! Summer finally decided to arrive with humid temperatures that hit over 100 with heat indexes of up to 110! I started making our newborn cloth diaper stash, which I am super proud of! Scott can't understand why I am so obsessed! haha And to top off everything the kids got a fever and rash virus that decided to plague us for nearly a week!
 Whew...no wonder I am sitting here wondering where to start!


Along with normal daycare kids we had a lot of appointments this month.

Brooklyn had her FIRST hair cut! She had never had a full cut so her hair was all different lengths. I had "attempted" to trim her bangs, but they desperately needed help as I am not a professional!






She did really well and only had a few tears (screams!). Lol
 By the end she was buds with her hair stylist Mrs. Jennifer from Classic Hair Creations!


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 Then we had our ultrasound appointment and even though we have been saying we were going to keep the baby's gender a surprise till birth we caved and found out!




Little baby feet!
 And of course, his little legs measured long for his age and compared to the other measurements! Not surprising we will have another tall boy! I wonder where they get that from! ;)


We couldn't be more happy to welcome our 3rd little one and 2nd little boy into the family!






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On June 16th, we celebrated our 6th anniversary!
 I can hardly believe it has been 6 years since we tied the knot! So much has happened, both good and bad, and we have grown together as a couple.



 This is us at the end of our very busy Anniversary day. You know all the normal daily duties don't go away and the kids don't magically care, feed, bathe, and bed themselves!
We did order take out and had a picnic style (with blanket on the living room floor) candle lite dinner once the kids were put to bed. It was really nice and we both agreed was surprisingly relaxing!


 Silly shots with my love and best friend!


 When we got married we were told by so many "oh that first year was the worst" or "just wait till year ____".  I can honestly say we have yet to experience that "bad" year!  Of course, we definitely don't claim to have it all figured out. We know with life, raising children, job changes, etc our relationship will continue to grow and mature.  We also know that keeping our relationship focused on Christ is the first step to a successful relationship.  We have learned that keeping the communication open and trying to be understanding will prevent most fights and hurt feelings. We are just like everyone else and we get busy. Work, kids, sports, household, appointments....the list goes on.
Also for us remembering to give 110% to our spouse and not just doing the 50/50 that the worldview says to do.  Whenever we start having tension it usually stems from a lack of communication or falling into the 50/50 thought process.
So by far we do not have this "marriage" thing figured out, but we can say it has been a great 6 years. We are so thankful to have each other and look forward to living this crazy life together! :)


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Okay, now for the vehicle change! We had this great little car we bought a few months before we got married....this was the car we drove away from our wedding in and took both of our kids home from the hospital in. But, she had her issues and the time had come for us to say good-bye. She needed a whole new transmission and had multiple other problems.
So.... looking at our options and figuring out our current dependable van was showing signs of not being dependable for much longer....we did some selling and trading
 and bought this beauty!


(It looks blue-ish here, but is truly silver.)

We can't say enough good things about our new ride! I love the storage, the removable 2nd row middle seat, self opening sliding doors and hatch, DVD player, sun roof, and all around ease of use with 2 (or more) kids!
LOVE, LOVE, LOVE IT!


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Okay switching gears.......here is what I have been literally filling my very little spare time with!




These are some newborn fitteds I have made out of upcycled material!
The bottom row are larger prefolds that I turned into newborn size fitteds. The top row (except the Pillsbury Boy one) is upcycled receiving blankets I had leftover from when Eli was a baby. The blue Pillsbury Boy one is from a T-shirt I bought at Goodwill for $2.50!



I have really got into making our newborn stash! Although, I am praying they all actually work and I will get to use them! haha I have this fear they will leak or won't fit.
Seriously... I have even dreamed about making cloth diapers! How to improve them or make them differently. I know there has to be some of you out there who understand this strange obsession....?
Honestly, I have been enjoying the sewing projects and it really is a good stress release for me.

I will post more about how I have been making them soon! I am trying to perfect the pattern. 


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We ended the month with the kids coming down with a fever and rash virus. It plagued them for nearly a week of on and off fevers and whinny grumpiness. :( Thankfully they are tons better and back to their busy selves!
I told Scott, "you know they are better when I am disciplining again!"
They really are good kids...they just need some positive directing sometimes. 

The end of this month also brought the hubby to a new job. So he is just starting his 2nd week of training and all is going well so far. It is his first job outside of banking in 6 years!
As we are still looking for that ministry position where God wants us to be we are thankful for this great job opportunity. It looks like he will have better hours (and NO Saturdays! Yay!) so he can be more involved in other ministry opportunities.



So there was our June in a nutshell. How was your June? Any big family moments or events take place?


Saturday, June 15, 2013

Master Room Redo-New Paint and Plans

Our Master Bedroom has been needing a face lift for a looooong time! I seriously felt like I was sitting in a dark cave! So last weekend we decided to tackle the walls and trim. 
  In one weekend we prepped the trim and walls, panted the trim, and primed and painted the walls! 
It was a lot of work but I am in love with the results! 




Here is the before pictures I snapped when I was prepping the walls.






Believe it or not the whole 3 1/2 years we have lived here we never painted any trim......not to say they didn't need a beautiful coat of white paint....we just never got around to it. It was not as easy or as fast as I thought it would be. 
I had decided I was not going to use painters tape at all during this job and do the ol cutting in with a brush. Although, it was slower I was extremely pleased with the clean lines and NO CLEAN UP! haha 
We did have to scrub off a few tiny splatters of the wood floor left by the roller. Besides that it was as easy as picking up the floor coverings and washing out our brushes!  And now that we have crispy white trim in our room I am in LOVE! Now I can not wait to get to the rest of the house! There is just something with a fresh bright coat of paint that makes me all giddy inside. 

So since the trim took me all of Friday evening to do. No joke, it took me about 2 1/2 hours! I didn't get the primer on the walls till Saturday morning.  That afternoon we (hubby and I) teamed up and got the first and only coat, thanks to it being paint + primer, on the walls. He managed the roller while I cut in with the brush. We work great as a team and got the whole room painted in an hour. Usually we have to take shifts on kid patrol unless we start after the kiddos bedtime. 
We did take a small roller and touch up a few places, but really other then that we only used one can of Kilz and one can of paint+primer!



 




So we ended up spending the weekend sleeping on the air mattress in the living room....but it was definitely worth it! 
Everytime I walk in our room I get all excited! 

Before...


And after....!!



The next job will be to make our headboard that was inspired by Young House Love's new book!
I bought the book for my sister (who introduced me to YHL) for her Birthday and couldn't help but review it for her! hehe! Yes, I will be buying for myself as well!

Anyhow...... here is my list of plans for our bedroom.


1. Make headboard and attach to wall.
2. Paint night stands white
3. Find material and make curtains
4. Buy a new bedspread
5. Paint doors
6. Make or find discounted accent pillows
7. Find a craigslist 2nd hand long dresser (possibly refinish) to replace our mismatched furniture. 


Yes, and all this I really want to happen before the baby comes. Not too much to ask, right? :)

Here is a sneak peek of the fabric we chose for our headboard. I'll have more on how much money we ended up saving!



Have you brightened up a space in your house recently?

Thursday, June 6, 2013

Not So New News




Yes, this is why I have disappeared from blogging since.......um February! Yikes! We are expecting baby #3 and are so excited! 
With all my pregnancies I have had bad throw-up-morning-sickness (sorry for that image!) that lasts anywhere from 8 to 12 weeks. Blah! Thankfully, I was only down and out with the dreaded morning sickness for about 8 weeks this time. 
When I was sick literally ALL day and still had to keep up with my kids plus daycare kids, it was all I could do to make it through the days. Unfortunately, that meant blogging was really not on my mind. Don't worry though.... neither was cleaning house, cooking or really anything that required getting off the couch! ha 

So now that I am back to my somewhat self, I have caught up on the house and got control over my children! ;0) I now feel like I can manage blogging again! Yay!
During the last few months I have had some awesome ideas and can't wait to tackle them and share. While I was drained of energy and sick we had to find a way to survive. So look out for a post on how we managed those long weeks of morning sickness. 

This weekend's project is to paint our master bedroom!! FINALLY! I am beyond excited to start the makeover and make our room the relaxing getaway we want it to be.  I am not sure about anyone else, but our master bedroom has usually been the falling ground for things that can't seem to find a home. No more! We are going to go from brown and dark to white/grey and light! So excited! 
I want to use yellow and blue hues to accent our room and add a little pop of color. 
So keep a look out for the pictures of our progress!



 


Friday, February 15, 2013

Banana Muffins (Dairy Free)

 
This banana recipe is an all time favorite at my house! If your family is like mine they will eat them as fast as they come out of the oven. I found this muffin recipe at greenmamaspad.com.  I did modify it slightly, leaving out the nutmeg and using whole wheat white flour instead of all purpose flour. 

 Ingredients
1 ½ cups whole wheat white flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
3 very ripe bananas, mashed
1 egg, lightly beaten
3/4 cup white sugar
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/3 cup oil

Directions: 

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Use muffin liners or lightly grease the muffin pan. 





     (Ahh! Please ignore how horrible my non-stick pan looks.... I only use it with liners since it has lost it non-stickiness!)


2. In a large bowl, mix together dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon).



 Mash the bananas and beat together with the egg. sugar, vanilla and oil in a second bowl.





 3. Stir the banana mixture into the flour mixture.


  Be careful not to over mix. Spoon into muffin cups, filling about 2/3 full.


Yep definitely time to replace the pan...blah! I was cringing as I edited the photos!


4. Bake in preheated oven. For mini muffins bake about 12-15 minutes. For full size muffins, bake about 18-20 minutes. Insert toothpick into center of muffin to test. 

Enjoy some dairy free goodness!

 
It feels great to find new recipes that I can feed my no dairy girl! Let me know if you have a non-dairy family favorite! 


Thursday, February 14, 2013

Foot Print Valentines!


This was a fun craft project to do with the kids. The big boys loved getting their feet painted to make the heart prints. Brooklyn on the other hand took a bit of convincing! Once I finally talked her into letting me she was all giggly and excited! She said it "tickled" and was "cold". haha! 


 I found this project on Pinterest and put my own twist on it. 


I started with white paper, red paint, and a sponge brush.




And found some little feet....!



He was excited... can you tell? 
 


Paint on some red paint. Warning may bring out squeals and giggles!



Make two adorable prints. I made sure I had some wet paper towels handy to clean up with. Eli kept saying it looked like I was painting blood on his feet. He even asked me if we could pretend it was real blood! LOL Hmm...I am not sure if that is the boy in him or if I should be horrified!



Here was Brooklyn while we were painting Eli's feet! She said "wook mama! TWO!". Such a stinker!



After the foot prints dried I cut them out in a heart shape and glued them to another piece of paper. The big boys glued and placed the hearts and poem by themselves.  Finishing the heart I used a glitter pen to trace the heart. I typed up the poem in Word. Here is the PDF we used!


Eli's Valentine!



Brooklyn's Valentine!



Hope you all had a special day with your kiddos!


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